Do insects have personalities? Do invertebrates in general exhibit "personalities"?
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If by personality you mean individual-level differences in behavior, yes, definitely. (It's old now but it holds up)
I mean, it'd be odd if there was variation like there is in all organisms but it somehow didn't extend to the brain.
Even wilder, because of the semi-decentralised way an octopus's central nervous system is set up, it's been suggested each tentacle might have a personality of it's own, on top of the octopus's!
That surprised me about octopuses. They're really cool animals.
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Spider warning (it's a jumping spider, so it's tiny): https://www.youtube.com/shorts/59fZMRVoHCc
Certainly nothing to the level of people or even cats and dogs, but handling does improve personality. Jumping spiders will often recognize their tanks and immediate location as safe territory. They will also start to recognize their handlers as the food bringers and "beg".
I understand if it's still offputting if you're not into creep crawlies, but jumping spiders are sometimes referred to as "octokittens" due to their tendency to be tiny little divas who sit around and clean themselves like cats. It might look a little scary, but when they start waving their front legs around like that they aren't rearing up in defense like a tarantula, that's their "give me uppies" pose. You'll see a lot of videos of them online leaping at the camera; that's not them attacking, that's them treating all of life like a jungle gym. Personally I think they're adorable and I recommend watching more videos from people who love them if you want to see more personality.
EDIT: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gEMPLrWh35g , tell me that's not a cat!
EDIT 2: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DZkaLAoREWo , I think my favorite thing about jumping spiders is you can tell how smart they are. The way they look around and scan their environment and really seem to see things and take it in. You can almost hear the tiny gears turning in their heads as they consider things.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/a-QpxmSD9jo , they'll also chase laser pointers like a cat.
Endlessly fascinating animals to me, I love them.
Jumping spiders are my favorite after reading children of time
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What is a personality
I'm not sure, but the neighbours hand raised a starling who then decided we were his best friend, and I've never seen such a personality in a bird. He would yell through the kitchen window for me to come get him and take him for a drive around the block. He loved the car, came for walks with me and my dogs sitting atop my head and rooting through my hair, teased my dog by sitting just out of his reach and squawking at him as a joke, and it was SO amazing, but you could actually pick his specific voice out among all the many chirping birds when he was chirping at us to come outside and pay attention to him and feed him, I had no idea wild birds could be so very funny and demanding. He's still alive five years later and summons the neighbour to come outside and give him mealworms by yelling through the window.
